Ah ha. Another artifact of time. The traditional ways of life are now all revoked. The kid is only another "small" business person...and she has not gotten the required fascist permission to operate based upon her paying Backsheesh to the local Lords of business.

The government should cut back on surplus health inspectors in these times of dire public finances. If you've got enough health inspectors to shut down lemonade stands, you're not exactly short of money.

OK, this danger to public health must learn that government dummies always win, unless bribes are paid. There will be bribes! The government by design works 7% for our protection and 93% for paying for its own lifestyle.

The little girl was not selling it in front of her house; her mom took her to the local art fair.

I would have no problem even if she sold it from in front of another person's house on the way to the art fair. But once there, she looks like any other vendor. Farmers' kids weigh out produce at farmers' markets -- the expectation that they are helping out their folks.

We have to teach our kids business basics if we want them to succeed. When my 11 year old sets up a lemonade stand I charge her for the ice, the lemonade and the plastic cups, along with a rental fee for the table and a labor fee for my carrying it to and from the street. She should also pay any fees demanded by the local authorities. Any profit she makes is hers to keep minus any taxes and FICA she owes. This gives kids a healthy idea of what running a small business is really about.

When's the last time a lemonade stand kid actually made the lemonade with real lemons?

It's a kid's lemonade stand, not Whole Foods.

And when's the last time that kid washed her hands? Was it after the last time she wiped her nose?

Look, if you don't like the circumstances, then don't do the alms-giving. It's that simple.

Others, myself included, would buy a glass of lemonade, if for no other reason than to encourage and reward good and industrious behavior exhibited by that kid.

Do you remember the story about Kevin Costner during the Harley Davidson 100th Anniversary party in Milwaukee a few years back? Costner and a buddy rode their Harleys to Milwaukee for the event. Just two guys, no publicists, agents or anyone else.

They took a ride through the Milwaukee suburbs one afternoon, just sightseeing. Costner saw a mentally disabled kid selling cold drinks in his front yard and stopped. He bought everything the kid had, then spent an hour or so with the kid, throwing a football in the front yard, talking about motorcycles, letting the kid sit on his Harley.

The kid's mom came out to see who the stranger was who was playing with her kid. Costner introduced himself as "Kevin", no last name.

The mom figured out who he was and wanted to call the local news paper, the neighbors, etc. Costner said no, that he just wanted to thank and reward the kid for doing something good and spend some time with him. He also told the mom "It's not about me, it's about your son."

The mom took a photo and told the local newspaper about the Costner encounter the next day.

Costner did a classy and selfless thing. Snubbing and criticizing kids who are doing something productive is very unclassy.

You can't make cookies for old people at nursing homes without a food handler's permit.

Screwtape approves:

I heard the other day that in that country a man could not, without a permit, cut down his own tree with his own axe, make it into planks with his own saw, and use the planks to build a toolshed in his own garden.

fls, how much money do you think that little girl could have possibly made? Yet you accuse her mother of exploiting her for under-the-table cash?

He sleeps under a bridge, washes in a public bathroom and was panhandling for booze money 11 months ago, but now Larry Moore is the best-dressed shoeshine man in the city. When he gets up from his cardboard mattress, he puts on a coat and tie. It's a reminder of how he has turned things around.

In fact, until last week it looked like Moore was going to have saved enough money to rent a room and get off the street for the first time in six years. But then, in a breathtakingly clueless move, an official for the Department of Public Works told Moore that he has to fork over the money he saved for his first month's rent to purchase a $491 sidewalk vendor permit.

The government should make her get a license, force her to get health insurance for herself and her employees, mandate she ne subject to periodic state health inspections, force her customers not to smoke while drinking their refreshing beverage while in the vicinity of her stand, and then the government should take 40% of whatever profits remain after complying with those regulations so it can be re-distributed to the neighborhood kids who lack to ambition and drive to compete against her.

When did we start trusting what strangers from the other side of the country give us in packages over what our neightbors offer out of their kitchen? I remember in elementary school I wasn't allowed to bring homemade cupcakes for my birthday but could bring some refined something some company produced.

Gabriel -- Mom is clearly running this enterprise, by making the kid wait a month to open her stand, not letting the kid make her own sign (It's OK, honey, you can color in my sign with your CRAYONS), and taking her to a monthly art market where all the other vendors have licenses and permits, instead of just letting her set up in front of their house. The kid's only input was that she wanted a lemonade stand -- all the other ideas came from Mom.

I just noticed another thing -- the mother and daughter live a half hour away by car. I guess I could have asked my mom to drive me to the Loop to set up my lemonade stand, but she never would have gone for it.

This reminds me, I was half watching an episode of Bobby Flay's Throwdown with sound muted. Apparently they were preparing for a coconut cake contest. The contestant was being profiled at home preparing a coconut cake with his 4 yr.old (?) son. The boy was a little doll. With his hands in his hair. Then his dad, the chef, instructs the boy to pat the toasted coconut onto the side of the frosted cake.

Our world is mad. Completely. Worrying about whether a kid washed her hands or sneezed into the Kool Aid or the mom helped out or the government got its cut. Jesus, I think my head is going to explode. The playground down the street has been completely remodeled to remove the long chains from the swings (much too high) and the bark has been replaced with bits of rubber and the metal jungle gym is now of nice rounded wood. Grown ups are complete pussies. The kids cannot do a fucking thing without total supervision. Without wearing uniforms. Without adult referees. The backstop is coming down because baseballs are too hard. Somebody could get hurt. An accident occurs in the Gulf. All drilling must stop. Somebody can get hurt. Some body might get a fucking cold.

"I just noticed another thing -- the mother and daughter live a half hour away by car. I guess I could have asked my mom to drive me to the Loop to set up my lemonade stand, but she never would have gone for it."

We never lived in a location good for a lemonade stand so I just never let my kids have one.

Win, win!

Unfortunately we also live somewhere where no one needs lawns mowed or leaves raked. So they couldn't do those childhood jobs either.

(Seriously, the landscape style is called "Southwest Natural.")

And these days parents expect babysitters to be adults or have Red Cross life-saving babysitter classes.

Too much government. Somehow, neighborhoods managed to sell stuff and even food items for most of our history without officious angry little female factotums touting their clipboards and reg copies around. Scowling at the stupid general public having fun and not understanding all the regulations and fees are there to protect their health and safety from their ignorance of PH Act 221 section 187 reg 3A, 12, and part 24 subsection C.

Or even child "disease vectors" face a 500 dollar fine.

Unbeknowest to these food nazis, the vendor community regulates itself pretty well. Kids get slack but you can bet the competitors will drop a dime on a rival vendor who tries being in the business without playing by the rules the rest agree amongst themselves to abide by.

We may well need the day when we fight back against unelected bureaucrats adding a new regulation a day and unelected court officials overturning elections.

It would have been salutory for a mob to have beaten those two food nazis. To end up crawling away trailing blood and broken teeth. Violence is about the only way left to fight against oppressive public officials.

The government should cut back on surplus health inspectors in these times of dire public finances. If you've got enough health inspectors to shut down lemonade stands, you're not exactly short of money.

Well said. Let's cut out about 50% of all bureaucrats while we're at it; we don't really need them, and we definitely don't want them. Want to save public money? There's your answer.

I pulled #1 Because years ago when my oldest son was 5 years old he set up a lemonade stand on the corner and sold lemonade, cookies, and Pokémon cards didn’t want (and no one else did either). And what do you know, in less than two hours he had cleared over $40. So whenever my boys needed a little extra money they would sell lemonade and my neighbors would buy a glass and a cookie.And so, as a way to thank them, I always stop at ANY lemonade stand and buy a glass (and drink it) with a smile 

When's the last time a lemonade stand kid actually made the lemonade with real lemons?

Last weekend.

A kid came by the house while I was in the garage and asked if he could mow the grass. I do it myself but it is so unusual to have a kid do that nowadays I told him if he came back today I'd let him do it. We'll see if he shows up.

I told my wife about it and she told me she had stopped and bought lemonade from a little girl the same day. She said the mother was helping her, watching over the operation, and that it was fresh squeezed lemonade.

I'm not positive why kids don't do this stuff nowadays, I suspect they don't have to, that they get pocket money from their parents. My opinion is they should be encouraged when they take the initiative.

Taking a wild guess, I'm thinking if that kid shows up today it will end up being more work for me than if I had just done it myself. Still, it's a good deed and it should be entertaining.

I note you did not drive him a half-hour away from home so he could set up at a street fair with high foot traffic.

Further, your neighbors know who you are, and who your kid is. They're happy to brighten the kid's day.

In a way, what the mother did reminds me of the adolescents parachuted into my neighborhood to sell magazines, or even candy bars, supposedly to fund some school trip. You ask them where they live and where they go to school, and the two never jibe. I'm happy to help a neighbor, too, but these kids aren't from the neighborhood.

My kids, when they were 8 or 9, had a pretty sweet deal -- they pulled their wagon a block over and set up a drink stand in from of the entrance gate to a popular local park. They could have cleaned up if they'd been more ambitious, but they only sold drinks until they'd cleaned us out of soda, bottled water, and ice and they had enough cash for more Pokemon cards.

I never drink or eat the offerings at child-run food stands. But I buy a portion, anyhow. They certainly deserve support for a degree of initiative. Yes, we do pay health inspectors to assure safety of consumables, but that comes from ... inspecting? I don't think a query about a $120 license is as effective in assuring public health as maybe taking a few minutes to explain cleanliness, hand-washing, etc. to the young business people. That could have long term positive effects for everyone.But, that is so close to doing the job as opposed to doing the title that I really don't see any large scale implementation of such common sense approaches.

Leave the kids alone! ...There should certainly be more concern about food safety and handling which comes from our national food growers, slaughterers and suppliers. Anyone ever watch the documentary FOOD INC.? If you eat chicken you have a world of problems to be concerned about! Enough said!...